Sydneum: A Monday on Aaronworld-1259
by Psychoflop
Summary: An art heist for a painting that never was on our world


Sydneum: A Monday on Aaronworld-1259

Chapter 1: Ghosts in Machines

The Adge was quickly becoming a personal favourite of Ms. Dani Stafford, as it was technically speaking both an apartment and a hotel located on Riley street. Not quite as many amenities as the standard hotel room would have, but the interior decorating that was in place was made to resemble an apartment. Her room type was called "Cityscape Lounge and dining." which was a 1-bedroom suite located on the sixth floor, rainbow carpet that was vertically striped on the floor, an enclosed bedroom that was all white in both wallpaper and furnishings on the west side of the suite, a full kitchen (also all white with a fridge, stove and dishwasher), a combination closet/laundry room, and a living room on the east end of the suite (again, also all white) adjacent to a balcony overlooking the high park district of Sydney, Australia. It was a view that she still greatly enjoyed even after all of these weeks (even as she put on her Black and Silver Japanese Silk bathrobe while getting out of the shower)

Dani had been living here for three months as part of her job. The pay was great (if you complete the job), but travel was (to put it mildly), a near-constant. She had been in the game for three years and had visited 6 of the 7 continents of the world after it became obvious that entry to college for movie making was going to be too expensive, she was contacted by an older gentlemen through a mutual friend to be an apprentice...

...to become a professional thief. Dani had never lost sight as to who she was before she began learning how to steal, as she walked over to the coffee table and stared at her 2 black dell laptops while endlessly rolling a pink semi-translucent 8-sided dice in complete and utter boredom.

"Why can't my partner play Dungeons and Dragons like I do?"

She asked herself that question with melancholy in her voice every day. Or in this case, night as it was 12:30 at night and she was desperately waiting for her partner to contact her before she had to go to her job within a job: Night shift security at The Art Museum of New South Wales. Two beeps then emitted out of her laptop.

"Way to keep a lady waiting, Thom. Thank God Wi-Fi isn't monitored in this Hotel. Then again, that's likely why you picked it."

She double-clicked an icon on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen in order to upload DarkNet. DarkNet is a private network where connections are made only between trusted peers using non-standard protocols and ports. They're distinct from the regular internet (on Dani's other laptop) as sharing/communication is anonymous (that is, IP addresses are not publicly shared), and therefore users can communicate with each other with little fear of governmental or corporate interference. Anything illegal is run through DarkNet.

"Are you ready to do the job, dice lady?" was the message waiting on her screen. Dani made a snort of haughty derision, appreciating the nickname.

"I have been since we first 'moved' here." she typed in response. A drawback to DarkNet is that the responses take longer to transmit on account of the additional security that is in place.

"OK. Let's go over the plan one more time." was the message that showed up on Dani's DarkNet next.

Most people would be annoyed at Thom Phung's attention to preparation, detail and borderline Obsessive-compulsive nature as it pertained to review of the plan, but Dani understood why Thom was the way he was. For jobs that paid 6-8 figures each time, one detail missed could land them in a prison of a country that was not their own for the rest of their lives.

"You're the first half, you start." was all that Dani could type in response, she grabbed a 20-sided dice that was on the table and began rolling it. It appealed her to in a morbid sort of way, as due to a colouring error, the dice appeared "blood-splattered" with 1 half of it white and the other half red.

"OK., we both drive to the museum in separate cars. I go in through the Shipping/Receiving door (as I always do) with the 24 cubic inch cardboard box that we got from the local grocery store. Once I reach the security checkpoint, I tell them that it's a birthday present for my kid that I want gift-wrapped. He and I have become buddies so he won't inquire further. I change into my uniform that I keep in my locker as it's a job requirement. I then punch in and start my shift as a shipping clerk. After 67 minutes, I take a dive by throwing up on the floor (trying not to hit anyone as that would cause a co-worker to file a complaint which would slow us down), get excused to go to the bathroom located in the east wing as the museum's Wi-Fi is best there, take out my phone when I get inside the bathroom stall, access DarkNet, enter museum alarm system ID/password that you got for me, deliberately set off the alarms, go outside with the rest of the staff (while telling my supervisor that I feel better), wait 10 minutes, go back in, resume working, wait for you to pick up the box, pretend to get pissed off when the second alarm goes off, go back outside with the rest of the staff, wait 10 minutes, go back in, resume working, hear the announcement that all of the alarms will be disabled for routine maintenance for the rest of the shift, wait for you to return with the wrapped box, put the box back in the car during break, finish my shift, leave this place and never return...your turn."

Dani cracked her knuckles and began typing: "Drive to museum, go in through the front door, sign in, change into security guard uniform, begin 'patrolling', confirm the painting by appearance and location (King Louis IX of France tearing up the treaty of Paris), wait for the alarm to go off, head to night shift curator's office feigning concern, help resolve alarm, return to my duties, stop by the shipping department, pick up your box, take box to location, open it, put the large hooked stick in my pocket, stow the box in a nearby vent (that hasn't been used in years), continue 'patrolling', find the fire alarm by the trash can in the west wing, slither against the wall to the left (as the cameras can't see that part of the wall because it doesn't rotate wide enough), use hooked stick to pull fire alarm, throw the hooked stick in the trash, head back to night shift curator's office, suggest disarming alarms so that the maintenance crew can take a look at them, wait until the curator makes announcement over the P.A. system that the alarms have been turned off, pretend to have 'cramps' in order to get out of my nightly meal with the curator, sneak back to the painting, take the box out of the vent, put on my thermal suit, calibrate it in order to match the room temperature, get the forged painting out of the box, make the switch for the real painting, take off my thermal suit, put both the suit and the painting in the box, re-tape the box, take the box to the gift shop, wrap it nicely with any 'happy birthday' wrapping paper that they have lying around, take the box back to the shipping department, drop it off with you, finish my shift and drive away to never return. Anything I missed?"

Thom Phung read all of that on his screen fairly quickly. He was in his mid-thirties, long black hair in a ponytail and wearing a Vietnamese national soccer jersey. He was in the adge too, but on a higher floor (the rooms were otherwise identical). He was proud of his student, she was bright and very professional.

"No Dani, you got it. Just remember to keep calm while you're on the job and you'll be just fine."

Thom had a 2 laptop setup as well, 1 for DarkNet and 1 for the regular internet. The Swiss Bank pretty much didn't care about how their customers acquired their money, as long as the Swiss got to hold onto it. There was 1 outstanding notification waiting for his attention on the laptop with the regular internet, to which Thom clicked on immediately:

"Huh, whoever this is paid us in advance. Nice!"

It was a job for $8 million U.S. Dollars, which not only surprised Thom as much as the advance payment itself, but after subtracting Dani's half (that he would wire personally to her account), his bank balance was $253.1 million U.S. Dollars.

"Wow, I'm just hours away from hitting my cap." Thom thought to himself. All of the best thieves in the game gave themselves a cap that they would walk away from stealing once they reached it. Most didn't stick to it (as the thrill of stealing was too much for them to stop), most got busted. When Thom began doing this in 1999, his cap was $250 million and he had every intention of staying retired once he reached the cap. The life was an exhausting one, and he could use the relaxation. He had a new message from Dani, back on the DarkNet laptop:

"Thank you for your faith in me. There's enough of an age gap where that might have been an issue."

Thom wasted no time in typing his reply:

"This is my last job. I'll hand you my contacts when it's all over so that you don't have to start completely from scratch."

There was no incentive to not tell her that he was retiring. Dani deserved his honesty in all aspects of the job and he knew that she could either run solo or get a student in her own right and excel after he was gone. Actually, based on her energy (partly due to starting earlier in life), Dani would probably hit the cap sooner than Thom did. Her energy also transferred over to her typing it seems:

"I've been expecting you to tell me this for awhile now. I'm happy for you, you deserve to walk away. Hope you don't hold out on my half because of it."

Thom started laughing. The kind of laugh one makes when they're insulted by a comment that someone makes but understand why the other person typed it. Thom had a rare type of answer to give, an honest one:

"We got paid in advance, so we have to come through on this. I'll wire you the 4 million upon completion of the job."

Thom walked over and started a pot of coffee, as he wasn't used to working the night shift. It didn't take him long to prepare the pot, and there was a message waiting for him when he sat back down:

"Understood. So...where are you going to spend your retirement years?"

Thom laughed again. Not even the family that he left behind knew of his plans, and he wasn't about to let Dani know about them either:

"That's classified lol. What will your account be at after I wire you your half?"

Thom's coffee machine began percolating, he didn't pay too much attention to it.

"$118.6 million, why?"

Thom already had an answer ready to type for her:

"I think that with the way the world's economy is going, your cap should be set at $300 million. Don't worry kid, you're nearly 40% there after this job. By 2021 at the latest, you'll be sitting on a beach never having to work ever again. One last thing, destroy your car tomorrow. Pass or fail, you'll need to get rid of the evidence."

Thom got back up and poured the coffee pot into a stainless steel thermos (with black rubber grips to stop one from burning their hand. After he sat back don, another message came:

"I understand Thom, time to recite...I mean type...our code."

Thom smiled, as it was the code of conduct his former partner gave him and it kept him alive and his conscious clear. They began typing at once:

"Never steal from the dead or a child. Never spend your money reckless and wild. Never use weapons, especially guns. Work jobs smart, get out at your cap and have fun."

They shut off their DarkNet and exited their rooms simultaneously.

"Right in front of the Museum, centre parking space. Oh how I love my job."

It was the same words she spoke every night when she arrived at the museum, but Laurie Stansfield had a penchant for routine. It was almost as big a penchant as her penchant for arriving at work early.

"Evening Mr. Boothby, lovely tulips."

Mr. Boothby was the nighttime exterior maintenance technician. Essentially, a gardener at night with a fancy job title. She entered the museum via the front door, stopping to say hello to the janitor:

"G'day Mr. Jenkins, great floors."

She reached the curator's office, finding the afternoon shift curator asleep at his desk. This was one person that Laurie had no patience for. And after clearing her throat:

"MR. PICARD"

There sat an older grey haired gentleman initialled J.L. in front of her with black horn-rimmed glasses. He stood up immediately:

"Evening Ms. Stansfield." he said in an effort to redeem himself, it didn't work.

"Did you at least take notes before you dozed off?" asked Laurie with a tone of condescension.

"Of course I did." J.L immediately grabbed a brown clipboard with a pad of paper and began reading off of it: "No schools came through (obviously), no crimes to report, a man proposed to his girlfriend in our aboriginal artifact exhibit, she said yes, it was planned in advance and pretty much everyone on the staff signed the congratulations card."

Laurie nodded, "I signed it yesterday as I was leaving for the day, because I knew it was happening before I showed up tonight. Tell them that while we can't host the wedding as it would endanger some of our collection that we will be sending them a gift in the coming weeks."

Mr. Picard nodded and wrote that down. Laurie dropped off her purse and continued speaking "I'm getting some water. You can head home now."

Mr. Picard nodded, grabbed a black leather briefcase and headed to punch out for the night. Laurie headed out of the office towards a vending machine. After sliding in a 5 Australian Dollar bill she selected a 500 ml bottle of Aberfoyle Springs. She stared at it for a moment before popping off the plastic cap and taking the first sip:

"Thank god I can taste my Canada in this bottle."

She resumed drinking until she saw a teenaged male quickly head towards her, heading for the exit. There was a bulge under his Ac/Dc hooded sweater that had no business being there. Laurie wasn't fooled for one moment and grabbed him by the hood.

"Wow grandma, want me to get your pension checks in court?"

"Try it." Laurie responded with indifference as she reached under the shirt. Sure enough, it was an aboriginal ceremonial mask.

"Now how did you acquire this without setting off the alarms?"

"No Jail time, fine only." the teenager demanded. Laurie nodded, agreeing to the deal before the kid continued. "The aboriginal section's alarm system hasn't been converted to Wi-Fi yet. It's still on basic electronics. I bypassed the system by cutting the green and black wires, swiped the mask, then re-attached the wires in time to prevent the backup alarm system from kicking in."

"Well, that is original. I'll give you that."

By this time, half a dozen security guards had arrived to their location. They were all well over 6 feet in height, well over 200 pounds and were very unhappy that 1 teenager was responsible for them staying late to fill out a bunch of VERY boring paperwork when they all had families to head home to.

"Take out your hand kid." demanded Laurie.

The kid obliged (with some confusion). 1 of the guards took out a small black electronic apparatus and scanned his hand. After 3 seconds, a red light came on.

"So you're a repeat offender? Deal's off, kid. You're looking at 7 years minimum. Take him away."

The guards nodded, cuffed the kid and dragged him to the south wing which had a temporary holding cell until the real police arrived. Laurie grinned as she whispered "Still undefeated, 79-0. No thieves will ever beat me."

Chapter 2: Arriving at a future crime scene

Thom arrived in his car (a used black land rover that he won at a police auction, and yes he did appreciate the irony of a thief buying a car from the cops). At most, Dani was 2 minutes behind him on her way to starting her shift in a 2012 Grey Toyota Corolla. Thom popped open the trunk before he got out of his car. There were 2 items in the trunk: the large cardboard box needed to assist in the robbery, and a car bomb that he made that would eliminate some of the evidence of said robbery. There was a similar bomb in Dani's car.

"I won't turn you on until after I'm finished at the bank." he said as he got the box out of the trunk. Closing the trunk, he headed over to the Shipping/Receiving entrance (a nondescript metal door painted in grey). The first security check point wasn't far ahead, and the guard was a gentleman on the verge of retirement named Stanley. Short grey hair, obese, a sort of indifferent version of Santa Claus.

"Morning Thom, what's in the box?" asked Stanley in a matter that suggested to Thom that he really didn't care.

"A gift for my daughter. Birthday's next week. She's got a thing for Thor and I saw the giant doll at F.A.O. Schwartz 3 days ago. A little more than I wanted to spend but what the hell, she's a great kid. I'm gonna get one of the girls in your department...oh, what's her name? DANI! That's it, to wrap it up for me in the gift shop tonight."

Stanley nodded in sympathy "Yeah they're not cheap. OK., I trust you. Go on through."

"Thanks." Thom replied. He walked through to the locker and change room (Grey walls, grey lockers, grey uniform shirts and black pants). Changing into his work uniform and even reporting to the shipping department was uneventful. Starting the shift however, was a different story.

"What do we have here, Mr. Phung?"

Thom had made a rare mistake in his plan making. He didn't factor in the nosiness of the Night Shift shipping supervisor, a Mr. Jonathan Whitmore.

"A gift for my kid, not that that's any of your business." responded Thom assertively.

"It's on my floor, it's my business." replied Jonathan.

"In accordance to Australian law, any personal belongings stored appropriately (to which being under my desk counts as per your own words on my first day on the job) cannot be opened without suspicion from at least one security guard and my permission. Stanley vouched for me so if this conversation continues, I hope your lawyer is better than mine."

Jonathan walked off in silence, Thom however got a standing ovation from the staff who overheard him.

"What? My probation contract to work here expires this coming Friday. What's he gonna do, fire me? Canberra and Melbourne pay better anyway"

Thom's watch vibrated. Thankfully, everyone was so busy packing souvenirs to send around the world that no one noticed. They did however notice...

"BBLLEECCHH!"

Thankfully he missed the souvenirs and paperwork (and co-workers, which was his main concern) as he threw up. Even Mr. Whitmore showed a little concern. It may not have been genuine, but it was there.

"Are you alright, Mr. Phung?" he asked.

"No sir. In fact, I better go finish what I started in the bathroom, I can feel more coming." said Thom as he wrapped his arms around his stomach in an effort to sell the nausea further.

"Too much information." replied Mr. Whitmore as he pointed to the door. Thom nodded in thanks as he bowled his way over to the corridor. He kept "in character" all the way to the east wing bathroom (he was even spotted by Stanley who looked worried for him). As soon as he was inside the stall, it was back to normal Thom who took his phone out of his pants pocket.

He turned it on, accessed the DarkNet app (that was illegal to own on a smartphone in this country) and connected locally to the Museum. It immediately asked him for the Museum ID and Password:

"S-Y-D-N-E-U-M...1-2-3-4-5. Seriously, they deserve to be hacked with ID's and passwords that obvious" thankfully was only thought by Thom and not spoken out loud. He saw the museum mainframe and touched the section labelled "alarms", then pressed "test all systems" and covered his ears as fast as he could:

_ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN!_

Thom casually walked outside and met up with the rest of the Shipping and Receiving department. It wasn't Mr. Whitmore who was taking the attendance, but Laurie Stansfield. Thom turned off his phone and stashed it back in his pocket when he heard:

"Thom Phung?" shouted by Laurie.

"Here" he shouted as he raised his left hand. Laurie stared at him for a moment, focusing on a tattoo inside his left arm at the mid-point between the elbow and the wrist. It was blue pair of handcuffs.

"Why don't you take your phone out and snap a picture, it'll last longer." asked Thom sarcastically.

"Sorry. Your tattoo was just...striking." added Laurie who continued on with her role call. The fire trucks arrived and went inside (as per Museum policy) to see if there was a real fire. 10 minutes went by before they came back out and shouted "All clear". Everyone went back inside, Thom included. Mr. Whitmore approached him before he resumed his duties.

"Feeling better?" he asked, Thom nodded and returned to boxing souvenirs. Not long afterwards, came a familiar looking security guard. Even if he had to pretend that they were just museum co-workers and not professional thieves who had been partners for years.

"Hello Mr. Phung, where's your daughter's birthday present? I can wrap it tonight for you." asked Dani.

Thom pulled the box out from under the table he was working at. "Right here, hope there's some 'happy birthday' paper left."

"There is. I saw some of it in my earlier rounds. More than enough for this box, I promise." replied Dani.

"Thank you so much, Ms. Stafford." replied Thom. Dani smiled, nodded and left with the package (but not before pocketing a stray exacto knife located on a nearby table). Dani exited shipping and began walking towards the European History exhibit.

"MISS STANFORD!"

Dani stopped dead in her tracks as the figure behind her caught up to her.

"Hello Miss Stansfield, how can I help you?"

"What are you doing with a large cardboard box tucked under your arm?" asked Laurie suspiciously.

Dani had the answer, right on cue "Someone in shipping gave this to me to wrap. He has a kid with a nearby birthday and I love wrapping presents. It reminds me of Christmas" she added a grin to sell her perkiness.

"How nice of you. Carry on, but ditch the box. You're 5% slower on your rounds." added Laurie with a sense of being strict.

"I will. As soon as I can."

Laurie nodded and continued walking in the opposite direction of Dani. When she left Dani's view, Dani resumed her "patrolling".

"Good thing my uniform covers the tattoo of blue handcuffs that I got just above my ass." she thought to herself as she reached the entrance to the European History exhibit. She took the exacto knife and started cutting the top of the box very carefully. Inside was a roll of tape, a thermal suit, the forged painting and a modified radio antenna that extended to 6 feet but was formed into a hook at one end. She grabbed it and stashed the rest of the box in the abandoned vent by gently lifting the access panel in front of it, removing it and putting the open box inside. There were no cameras covering this section of hallway so Dani was completely relaxed as she put the access panel back into place.

When she reached the hallway that had the fire alarm above the trash can, Dani changed her style of movement from a normal walk to sliding against the wall on the left. There was a camera there, but it didn't capture the last 10-15 feet before the fire alarm. She slid very carefully, extended the antenna, hooked the fire alarm and pulled hard.

_ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN! ENN!_

Thankfully, there were no water sprinklers (as they would ruin the art in the entire museum more than any fire ever could). Dani very quickly threw out the antenna in the trash can and quickly walked over to Laurie's office.

"Are you even going to bother with taking attendance of each department this time, Miss Stansfield?" asked Dani.

"I'm not even going to bother with the fire department this time. They technically came but I told them that the alarms were going off due to error so they headed back to their firehouse. Hey, this time the alarm went off by the European History exhibit right as you were supposed to be there, did you see anyone pull the alarm? I was in the bathroom so I didn't see anyone on the cameras."

Dani shook her head before answering "I had already left European and was halfway to Asian when the alarm went off. Ditching the box brought me back up to my standard pace. And I haven't seen a single guest tonight, but who comes in at 2:45 in the morning just to look at paintings?"

"The homeless, mostly. I understand why, Australia can get cold sometimes. That's why I usually just send them to a shelter via a ride in a police car and otherwise leave them alone."

Dani was surprised to hear that answer but nodded in understanding. "Why don't we just disarm the whole thing and let the maintenance crew see what's wrong? We still have the thermal alarms that would catch people."

Laurie nodded "And the cameras that have more blind spots than an Australian car, which is why I secretly acquired sonic sensors."

Dani barely avoided gulping in anxiety "You got what?"

Laurie smiled and explained herself "The main exhibit rooms have sonic sensors in them. I turn them off when the museum is open to the general public as everyone makes noise but at night when there's few to no customers I turn them on. They can detect pretty much anything louder than a whisper."

Dani was in the middle of extreme panic as she had a very tough decision to make. On one hand, her plan now had to include a level of silence that might be impossible for her. On the other hand, she and Thom were already paid in advance so they're expected to do the job. She rolled a D20 in her mind with odds being abort mission and evens being press on: It was 16. She was still going to go for this.

"Hey, want to duck out for an hour and get some Chinese food with me?" asked Laurie.

That may have been the lucky break that Dani was hoping for. "No thank you. I'm having a 'heavy' day, sorry to gross you out with my 'cycle'"

Laurie nodded in sympathy, "I don't miss having those anymore. Well, you and the other guards keep an eye on this place until I get back."

Dani smiled and pointed at her contact lenses to make a rebuttal "4 eyes Miss Stansfield. As often as I can spare them, I promise."

Laurie giggled at the reference to the Fellowship of the Ring, grabbed her keys and left.

"Time for my other job." she whispered as she left Laurie's office.

Dani reached the European exhibit again 2 minutes later. Based on her knowledge of other security patrols that were in the building, she had about 3 minutes to put on the thermal suit, reach the painting, swipe the painting, put it in the box and all of this without setting off the sonic sensor (which she now saw in the upper left corner of the exhibit room).

She reached the abandoned vent in front of the exhibit. She removed the access panel, took out the box, took the tape out of the box, took out the thermal suit, took out the forged painting and put the thermal suit on. It was all black, covered everything but Dani's eyes and could measure the temperature around the suit (10 metres in all directions).

"Room temperature...22.7 degrees Celsius. Begin calibrating the suit to match temperature in silent mode."

The suit followed it's orders exactly. Dani watched its' progress via a panel on her left forearm. When it was finished she ordered "Continuous auto-calibrate in silent mode.", grabbed the painting and ran while tiptoeing towards the painting. Once she reached it, she couldn't help but appreciate the beauty that was a former King of France tearing up a peace treaty in defiance (she could even relate to it on a professional level as she was breaking the law). Then she shrugged, grabbed the real painting off of the wall, placed the forgery up and made another tiptoe run back to the box. She estimated that she had 60 seconds to strip off the thermal suit (she did in 10 thanks to the elongated zipper starting at the top of her head and running down to her crotch), place the real painting and thermal suit back in the box (another 5), and tape the box back up (another 15 as she had to do it silently now).

She didn't even sweat through her security guard uniform with the additional clothing on, but she now had one more stop to make before heading for the gift shop:

"Gotta stop by Laurie's office one more time. Just to make sure the thermal and sonic alarms are not silent. If I tripped them, I'm screwed and probably Thom too!"

She walked back the way that she came (nodding at Stanley, who nodded back), and walked into to Laurie's office. She looked at the centre console where she expected to see at least 1 blinking light, if not 2...

...there were none. Dani somehow did the job perfectly despite the added variable of the sonic sensor.

"And now I have a gift to wrap for ." she said out loud.

The gift shop was located at the other side of the museum, but instead of walking all the way around via the corridors, Dani could just walk straight across the centre corridor from Laurie's office (to which she did). She saw the maintenance crew, and tried her best to ignore them...it didn't work.

"Evening Ms. Stafford, nice to see you on duty."

Dani tried her best to put a fake smile on (which was difficult with these guys around her), "Evening gentlemen. Sorry that we had to call you in at this late hour."

"No need, we get paid more this time of night."

"How about we take you out for breakfast when we all get off...our shifts."

One was red haired and morbidly obese, the other was an older blonde haired gentlemen with a missing left ring finger. They both repulsed Dani to no end, and they were too stupid to figure that out.

"Tell you what guys, why don't we just cut the foreplay and have a threesome after work. I could definitely unwind after 2 false fire alarms in one evening!"

The maintenance crew looked at each other and shrugged, the red-haired one asked "We're hetero, not gay or bi. Are you cool with us not crossing swords?"

Dani nodded and took out a pad of paper, writing down the same phony phone number twice. She then split the page in half and gave 1 half to each worker before walking away. The maintenance crew continued their way to the utility room, where they promptly took off each others clothes and took turns fucking each other in an obvious display of repressed homosexuality, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Dani reached the gift shop with no further interruptions. There were over a dozen versions of wrapping paper of assorted colours in different parts of the room. She chose the pink paper with "Happy Birthday" (fitting for a little girl) and wrapped the box as neatly as possible, only needing to tape the two sides on the left and right in order to seal the box. She promptly returned the unused paper to a cubby hole made out of cedar on the left side of the room, disposed of the now empty roll of tape and headed back for the shipping department. Laurie returned from her meal but didn't spot Dani as she reached the shipping department. Thom was there to meet her:

"Thanks Ms. Stafford, what took you so long?"

Dani tried to encode her answers as best she could (while still telling Thom about the snag that she ran into) "I heard strange noises in the walls along the European history exhibit, had to investigate what they were quietly. I also had to put in an order for some more tape."

Thom nodded (figuring out that basically she ran into at least 1 sonic sensor, had to be quieter than originally planned and that the tape that he left in the box for her was all gone) "I understand completely. Well, thank you again, I'm sure that my daughter will just love it."

"I'm sure that she will too. Enjoy the rest of your evening!" replied Dani as Thom returned to his work. Dani smiled on her way out, knowing that the rest of the day would basically be a formality now.

Chapter 3: Loose ends and revelations

It was 10:00 in the morning when Thom finished his shift for the last time. Having put the box back in the trunk of his car on his 7:00am breakfast break, he was almost completely out of the game now.

"So...which island of Fiji can I hide the best in?" he asked aloud, as he was alone in his car.

The back door of the car then mysteriously opened, and Dani was (for lack of a better word) thrown into the back seat of Thom's Land Rover with her wrists handcuffed behind her back.

"I'm sorry Thom, but she blindsided me." offered Dani in between tears.

Laurie then got in the car with them, the smirk on her face said it all.

"Not that there will be a next time for you, Mr. Phung...but next time, get a car whose make and model is not in the national registry."

Laurie then took out from her pants pocket what appeared to be a bio-electric key of some kind. Thom recognized it as having the ability to adapt to and pick any car lock well enough to open the door in less than 5 seconds (provided that the car was registered in a database for the bio-electric key). Thom himself had used similar gadgets in the past with smaller jobs.

"Impressive, Miss Stansfield. I guess you're 81-0, catching both of us." was all Thom could say.

"Would you like to know how I caught the two of you?" asked Laurie.

Thom nodded once, Laurie began on cue "Your forgery is 1.5 ounces lighter than the original copy. No, I don't have an alarm for that but every item used to hold our pieces of art in place measures the mass of each piece individually. So after Dani made the switch, my screens had a notification that 1 of the exhibits had its' weight altered. As there are no authorized changes to the museum's public collections for at least another month or so, I could only conclude that a painting had been stolen. As to how I knew that the 2 of you were behind it...well, I saw a surveillance photograph 3 months ago of you 2 walking out of the Smithsonian in D.C. and the mass tucked under your shirts matched the pieces of the Apollo 13 lunar module that had been stolen 1 hour prior."

Dani was about to reply in total outrage, but Thom motioned at her to stop. It was now Thom's turn to smirk, having had a sense of intuition that served him well even before he became a thief.

"OK. Miss Stansfield, now how did you really know it was us? As Dani and I never did the Washington job. We haven't had a North American job in a long time."

Laurie nodded, conceding defeat. But then she did something that neither Thom or Dani had expected: She took off a well-groomed wig, revealing a shaved head of grey hair. It revealed a tattoo of blue handcuffs (identical to the one that Dani and Thom had on different parts of their bodies) on the right side of her head. Then Laurie gave them their answer:

"Never steal from the dead or a child. Never spend your money reckless and wild. Never use weapons, especially guns. Work jobs smart, get out at your cap and have fun."

Both sets of eyes widened as Laurie took Dani's cuffs off while giggling. It was Dani who stated the obvious:

"You were one of us! That's amazing!"

Laurie nodded and gave them an explanation "I started out doing in it to pay for my college in the mid-70's. Then when it snowballed to a point where I would never need to use my degree, I taught a lady who I became best friends with there, who in turn taught her son, who taught Thom, who taught you Miss Stafford."

Thom understood the lineage that was just told to him, but it didn't really matter to him. "And I hit my cap with this job, so I'm out."

Laurie replied "Be careful Thom. You might get board and return to public life as a curator, just as I did."

Thom nodded "Maybe I'll try my hand at writing just like Aaron did."

Dani (growing restless) just shrugged "I just want to get paid and get the hell out of here."

"Oh of course, how rude of me." answered Thom as he took out his phone, accessed his Swiss bank account, selected "Wire money", selected "Dani's account." entered "$4 million" and Dani's phone vibrated.

Dani smiled, not needing to take out her phone "Thank you. Maybe I'll treat myself to a pound of dice."

Laurie sighs, remembering her younger days "My cap was $10 million, that's how far back I go."

Thomas then opened the glove compartment. It contained a black rope necklace with a key on it.

"Dani, this opens a storage locker in Vancouver, Canada. Public Storage, 111 commercial drive. It's all of the tools you will ever need, including more thermal suits. It also has a hard drive in it with my contacts list. There all yours now, I know that will use them wisely."

Dani nodded and replied "Thank you sir. Happiest of retirements to you, and farewell."

"Farewell, Dice lady." offered Thom as she got out of the car, never to be seen by him again.

"Well, technically I'm 81-0 but I suppose that erasing your identities will be enough to convince local authorities that the 2 of you died in my custody."

Thom nodded, then asked "You're the one who hired us, aren't you?"

Laurie smiled and nodded before saying "I knew I couldn't steal it myself without destroying my reputation as the curator so I hired you guys. Enjoy my money. I invested well so have well over 100 million left in my account"

Thom popped open the trunk and answered "Enjoy your art."

Laurie nodded and exited the car, grabbing the box and saying nothing further to Thom.

1 hour later, Thom had transferred his money from an account that his past knew about to a different account in the Swiss banking system that his past didn't know about. An older Swiss gentleman named Hans came to greet him (and not for the first time, either). He spoke with a mild German accent that seemed suave to Thom.

"OK., Mr. Phung. The transfer is complete. Any ideas on how you'll be spending your retirement?"

Thom shook his head and answered "Heading to the pier. South Pacific cruise, should give me a bit of time to plan my next half century or so on this earth."

Hans nodded, they shook hands and Thom left the office. Thom then took out his phone and accessed a part of his phone he had been looking forward to opening for over a year.

"I learned about this from my friend's detective novel. I wonder if I'll be living on the island that his other self lives on on another world, somewhere."

Thom then activated a virus, and uploaded it across the internet. All records of his identity were to be gone in 2 minutes, save his new account which he kept anonymously. He looked at his watch, which held a countdown to his car bomb.

"Best be getting to the pier, and I best be getting there on foot."

He walked south towards the water as his car exploded. While Thom was on the boat, he saw his car in flames on a news broadcast, followed immediately by Dani's.


End file.
